Sleeping with a Titan
by BleedingRoaz
Summary: After Eren accidentally turns into a titan in his sleep, Levi is forced to choose between killing him, and camping out in his room to make sure that it doesn't happen again. But what will happen when Levi learns that Eren's feelings for him expand beyond being simply an underling and superior, and Levi returns those feelings? WARNINGS: Yaoi and later on smut.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fanfiction story, so please go easy on me... I have a delicate heart :'(**

 **Anyway, Thank you for reading, and enjoy!**

3rd person pov

Eren sighed, his head bowed, as Erwin finished lecturing him. Eren knew that he had messed up big time, but he didn't know what he was to do about it, he didn't even know why he had changed like that! How did one turn into a titan in their sleep in the first place? And more than that, he didn't know how to stop himself from changing. This was the most frightening of his thoughts so far, and one of the main points in Erwin's lecture, because if he couldn't control himself, and the others couldn't stop him from changing... well, the prospect of the military police allowing him to live was extremely slim. Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed, bound in chains, in the cell, under the court room. He just couldn't keep himself out of the place.

Eren's attention was brought back to the man in front of him as Erwin sighed, his face falling into his palms. The two stayed like this for a few minutes, before the silence was broken by the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs. Eren immediately scooted away from the edge of the bed, if the uncomfortable thing could even be called a bed, and continued to do so until his back was pressed firmly against the wall. Erwin, quickly straightened his back, and wiped the depressed look off his face. It surprised Eren how good the man was at making a poker face. If Eren had not seen his expression before they had a potential onlooker, he would have in fact believed the lie that the other man's mask of indifference was telling.

They heard the sound of the last few steps at the bottom of the stairs, then the door to the dungeon, or "Temporary restriction chamber" as the military police called it, began to open. A small head, with short raven hair, and grey-blue eyes, peeked into the room. "Oh, it's you." Erwin sighed, letting his head fall back into his hands. Levi came the rest of the way into the room, and walked up to stand next to Erwin. "Hey shitty brat, they decided that you don't get a public trial, so I get to sit through a meeting to talk about what I have to do to keep you alive." Levi sighed. "By the way..." Eren winced internally as he sensed another lecture coming on.

He was right. It was about five seconds before Levi started yelling. "Do you have a death wish or something? What the fuck were you even thinking last week?! Oh, that's right, you weren't." Levi said more, but Eren didn't hear it; his mind was captured in thought. He thought back to the fateful night that he had turned into a titan and got himself in this mess in the first place.

\- The Previous Week -

Eren's pov

I was dreaming. It was dark. It was cold. It was painful. Those were the only things I knew. The knowledge that it was a dream, was all that kept me from curling up into a ball and letting fear, pain and despair take over my mind, body, and soul. Instead, knowing that it was a dream but not being able to wake up, I stood up, from where I lay, and looked around me.

As I looked around me, I realized that the sky was getting brighter, as if lit by an invisible sun. And all around me there were monsters. Yes there were titans, but there were also monsters so much worse. There were several that I had seen only in the stories that his mother had read him as a child. There was one, that I knew to be called a Windigo. They were horrific creatures, that looked rather like a reindeer, with fur and antlers, yet walked on two legs. Their soul, was a man, frozen within the Windigo's heart. The only way to cure the man, was for a woman to pour boiling lard down the creature's throat, too thaw its heart. I looked beyond the Windigo, and saw monsters that hadn't ever been given a name, and were only figments of my own imagination. Then, my eyes came to rest on something more horrible than anything else, that the land of demons contained.

It was my mother.

It was my mother, and yet it wasn't. Part of me wanted to run up to her, and embrace her, and apologize for not being strong enough to save her, but the stronger part of me was deathly afraid of her. Her legs were crushed, like they were when the house collapsed on top of her, so she floated about six inches off the ground. Her head had nearly fallen off, from where the titan bit her, so her head hung sideways, barely attached to her neck by a flap of skin. But the worst part of her was her smile. It was a fake, smirking grin, that never reached her eyes. My mother never smiled like that.

Then, the horrible smile disappeared, to be replaced by a sad look, and a sigh. "Why didn't you save me, Eren. Why do you leave me here to rot, and never see true daylight. Why were you always talking back, and wanting to disobey me. I only wanted to love you." With a disappointed look on her face, my mother began to walk away, clearly leaving me for the monsters. As she walked away, everything else in the clearing seemed to notice me for the first time, and all of my senses told me that if I wanted to get out alive I would have to run. So I did. And they caught me.

I was curled into a ball, doing by best to protect my head and neck. It felt like I was being torn to shreds; being eaten alive. All I knew was that I wanted it to end. Then, quite suddenly, there was a sharp, jerking, searing, feeling in my back, and I shouted out in pain. It was followed by a tugging sensation, then calm. When I opened my eyes, I was met with reality. My dream had gone, but the pain hadn't.

Levi was holding me in a headlock from behind, and Erwin was standing in front of me, his sward pointed at my chest. The sight of the head of the Survey Corps in his pajamas and 3DMG, was quite funny, but the look on Erwin's face was not, so I didn't laugh. When I looked beyond Erwin, I saw the rest of the team were ether on the floor, soaked in blood, or had a gun, sward, or both, pointed at me. The room was demolished, near to the point of caving in on us.

My vision was going black. "What... have I... done..." I managed to breath the words before I passed out from pain and exhaustion.

\- back to present time -

With much convincing on Erwin's part, and much complaining on Levi's, they managed to make a deal with the military police. The deal was that Eren could stay alive, if he was constantly being watched someone who could and would take him down if he got out of hand. This meant that Levi, works need to be with Eren all the time, even in his sleep since that was when he turned before. Because of this, Levi was moving in with Eren in his home in the basement of the abandoned castle.

Eren was stunned with this turn of events, and spent most of the three hours after finding out, staring at Levi, with impressed and slightly afraid eyes.

Needless to say, Levi was more than slightly pissed off. After moving his stuff into Eren's room, with much protest, Levi got tired of the eyes he could feel on him constantly, and snapped at Eren.

"Will you stop staring at me like I'm fucking Jesus, and go to sleep already. You will need it, cause I plan to get you up before the dawn. Sleep while you can, brat." And proceeded to get in his bed, not sleeping himself however, just glaring at Eren with hate filled eyes. It wasn't really Eren's fault though, Levi was just pissed at Erwin, the military police, and just the world in general.

If looks could kill... Eren didn't sleep much at all that night.

 **So... That was chapter one. Comment and tell me what you think, but please no hate mail. I'm cool with constructive criticism though ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I am REALLY sorry for the super long wait, but in my defense, I actually have a valid excuse. First I was grounded from my computer (Don't even ask what I was doing, chances are you don't want to know) and literally the same day I got my computer back my mom's X boyfriend stepped on it and it broke. I went the WHOLE summer without computer access.**  
 **Anyway, in the last chapter, there is a "summary" that I created while I was brainstorming. If anyone knows how to edit a chapter that was already published PLEASE pm me. It is so embarrassing having it up there, because, for one, I was planning on making the story a one shot and having that up there is proof that I write the longest damn stories, and I can't write one shot and should stop trying, and for two. . . well. . . Is it just embarrassing okay?**  
 **Now, if you actually read this, thank you for listening to me rant about my shortcomings, and on to the story. This chapter isn't deep like the last one (I got lazy) but it has hints of romance, so I am bad at writing one-shots, and also bad with character development. . .**  
 ***Sighs**

. . . . . . . . .

True to his word, Levi had woken Eren up before whoever was responsible for waking up Apollo and telling him to get his ass into his flaming golden chariot and fly across the sky had done his job and made the sun rise.  
Of course, he had also done it the day after that, and the next one, and the one after, and honestly Eren didn't expect it to stop.  
Eren hadn't slept much at all in the three weeks that he and Levi had shared a room. Lying awake at night, Eren couldn't help but notice how everything about the man was distracting. His gentle, light breathing, the way he smelt faintly of soap, sweat, and dust, they way the sculpted muscles in his back could be seen through the thin material of his cotton shirt, and, well, um... Eren didn't particularly want to think about the rest. The point was, lying awake till the early hours of the morning, when exhaustion finally took over, then waking up a few hours later for training was not good for Eren's physical nor mental state. Nevertheless, day after day, Eren had managed to stagger up to breakfast, force himself to eat some of whatever tasteless substance they were serving, then go back downstairs to get ready for the day. Sometimes Eren was so tired that it took him two or three tries to get his 3D maneuver gear attached correctly. He was late more and more often, Mikasa could beat him in hand to hand combat in just a few seconds, his balance was worsening. Eren felt that the stitching that bound his life together was coming loose.

This particular day, he truly had intended to make his bed, organize everything on his side of the room (Levi's side was already pristine), dust, sweep, etc. What actually happened was Eren seeing the bed in front of him, and feeling drawn to it as if it had gravity stronger than the Earth's. His body moved without his own violation, and suddenly he was lying on the bed, 3D maneuver gear, boots and all. His eyes slowly started to drift closed. Before they were fully closed, Eren was already in the world of dreams.

 _He was in a fight, titans in all directions, and his friends by his side. Mikasa was flying through the air in front of him, her swords moving faster than his eye could follow. Armin was standing on his shoulder offering him tips on how to fight his enemy, and watching his back. His other friends were there as well, fighting in various places around him. It struck him as somewhat weird that they were all here, but only for a moment. It gave him a special confidence and made him feel like he was the center of his own little universe, plus it was just plain nice seeing everyone he cared about: Annie, Sasha, Connie, Marco, Thomas, even Jean. He almost smiled, and tore an arm off the 9 meter class in front of him just to show it who was boss, then froze. Marco? But Marco was... NO! He wasn't. He was just fine. He was fighting right there in front of Eren. Why would he be... dead? Eren shook off the feeling he was now getting. It was a feeling like being doused in ice water, like a shiver going down the spine, like a cloud completely blocking the sun. It was a feeling of bitter dread. He felt Armin's familiar weight leave his shoulder. "_ Oh, must me some coward coming at me from behind. Armin's such a good friend to take care of that for me." _Eren thought. He looked over his shoulder to see if he could help. He turned around a second too late._

 _No... No. No! Why the hell was Armin nowhere in sight... or more accurately, Armin's upper half. His lower half was still being gripped by a titan. Not just any titan, the female titan. But... Annie... she had been off to his right, just a second before. He looked, and she was still there, but now she was hanging off a wall by her 3D maneuver gear, looking at him with a knowing smirk, like she was in on some joke that he was the victim of. He whipped around, and saw Petra and Eld, hanging eye level, just as they had when they had died before. When he had killed them. On the ground, a dissembled Marco was grinning up at him. He looked to the sky, just as Mikasa dropped down, and landed on the back of his neck, where the titans' kill spot was. "This is for what you have done to your friends." she said, in a deadly whisper. The last thing his saw, was the sun, menacingly red, setting behind a wall of titans, before a searing pain split him in two._

Eren opened his eyes to a searing pain, and an angry Levi. He rolled to the right, just before Levi's fist came smashing down where his nose had been up until about two seconds before

"Next time you decide to doze off, especially when you are not supposed to, please do it in your own bed," Levi said in a low dangerous voice, his grey eyes shining with anger, as well as with something else that Eren couldn't identify. It took Eren a moment to processes Levi's words. Next time you doze off do it in your own bed? Your own bed... SHIT! This was Levi's bed. He had _actually_ fallen asleep in his OCD roommate's bed. He was so dead.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Eren groaned, drowsiness still lacing his voice.

"Doesn't matter. What matters, is that you are already late for your training Of course I would be happy to help you make up any hand to hand combat you missed!" Shit. Levi's thin dangerous smile let Eren know he was in for a beating. Levi was short, but that didn't restrain him in the least. He could have any of the corps best fighters on the ground in seconds.

Still flushed with embarrassment from falling asleep in Levi's bed (Levi's of all people, the OCD captain who wouldn't hesitate to knock him unconscious) Eren hurried towards the door

As he headed up the stairs, he tried to remember what he had been dreaming about. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he wanted to cry.

. . . . . . . . . .

Levi lay in his bed, smirking at the figure across the room with a sense of satisfaction. Eren had been nursing small injuries, that Levi confessed, were really mostly healed large injuries, all through dinner. It wasn't exactly that he enjoyed beating up the brat, what had happened in court wasn't exactly pleasant, but when the little shit had his hands free to fight back, pounding him senseless was quite pleasing (forgive my innuendo).Levi rolled onto his stomach, buried his face in his pillow, and breathed in deeply, wanting to feel the calming effect of the smell of clean sheets. Instead, He got a whiff of Eren.

"Ugh" Levi groaned into his pillow, feeling disgusted. How had he forgotten to wash the sheets? He washed them every day! And forgetting right after the incident with Eren falling asleep in his bed earlier that day too. It didn't make sense! He NEVER forgot to clean ANYTHING that was even SLIGHTLY dirty. Even when his conciseness forgot, the need for things to be clean was so deeply engrained in his being that his subconscious self took over until there wasn't a spec of dust left. Could it be that his subconscious being didn't think that this was unclean? No... When Hanji had fallen asleep in his office once, he had scrubbed for hours to get their scent off of everything. But this boy...Levi lifted his head off the pillow. He had been breathing in Eren's musky, woodsy scent this whole time, and the truth was that while his clean freak side knew it was disgusting, having someone else's germs in his sleeping space, he really didn't mind the scent of Eren at all. He turned his gaze over to the sleeping youth and sighed, smirking with a grim sort of humor. If taking a bit from something someone else had already taken a bite off was an indirect kiss... would that make this indirect sleeping together?

"No," Levi muttered to himself sternly. "I will not go there. Eren is my charge, and a possible danger to humanity. I have to be wasting my life babysitting this brat, I will not fall-"

Levi stopped mid thought, frozen. What had he been about to say, about to think... about to admit?

"It was nothing," Levi attempted to reassure himself. "It's just this shitty day."

. . . . . . . . . .

 _Tick Tock goes the clock_

 _And all the years, they fly_

 _Tick Tock and all too soon_

 _You and I must die_

 _Eren's eyes snapped open, but all there he could see was a blank white. Then from the center of what seemed like its own little universe, was a shadow. The shadow grew taking over the white, until it was all he could see. From the shadows there came a haunting voice that laughed at his fear. Then his mothers voice broke through to him, a sweet melody from within the shadow. It was a nursery rhyme. Eren recognized the tune, but he didn't recognize the words._

 _Tick Tock goes the clock_

 _chiming another sunrise_

 _Tick Tock but time won't stop_

 _Our unavoidable demise_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys,**

 **I am currently taking a few online classes in addition to regular school, so my life is really stressful, which means I will probably be writing a lot. It is my way to weasel out of doing my homework. Even so, I am a really slow writer...**

 **Just so ya all know, when there is a** **. . . . . . . . .** **thing in the story, it indicates a POV change or time skip.**

 **I don't currently have a beta for this story, so if anyone wants to beta (or isn't a beta on fanfiction and just wants to help edit) please PM me.**

 **Anyways, I have successfully created a third chapter to my story... so yea. Here it is.**

. . . . . . . . .

Eren woke to feel warm rays of light coming in through the window. He felt warm, well rested, and more content than he had been in a long time. It took him quite a few moments to realize just what was wrong with the situation at hand. First, Levi had been setting a trend of getting Eren up hours before the sun rose, second his "room" - if you could even call it that- in the basement didn't have any windows, therefore it would be hard for much light to get in, and third, there was no way his bed had gotten this soft overnight. Yep. Something was wrong. His blanket was _not_ this warm, and a night without nightmares? Forget it.

He opened his eyes, and they met an unfamiliar tan ceiling instead of the brick ceiling of the basement. He was almost reluctant to get up out of fear that it would turn out that this miraculous new bed was all a dream, but nevertheless, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up slowly. He walked over to the window that seemed to cover most of the east-facing wall of the small room. He seemed to be on the bottom floor of whatever building he was in. He couldn't quite tell how large it was from the inside, but he inferred that it was pretty small. It had a small garden and a white picket fence that curled around the building and out of sight. Beyond the fence, there was a forest, filled with thick tall trees, and as a result, all he could see was trees, more trees, and even more trees. Eren had absolutely no idea where the hell he was, and what cliché place would even have a white picket fence, but he knew that he didn't mind it at _all_. I mean, seriously a white picket fence. This has to be a dream, but let me never wake up.

He gave a small start and whipped around as the door cracked open. No. He was wrong, this was not a dream but a nightmare. What would come in through the door, he wondered. His mother again, her body mutilated but still somehow walking? Something even more horrible? Was there anything more horrible?  
But it was only Levi. A pissed off looking Levi, but it was Levi. Wait, Levi was in his dream?

"What the fuck is that look for brat? I knew that you were afraid of me, but you seriously look like you're about to piss your pants."  
Eren opened his mouth to respond, but Levi quickly said, "Never mind, I don't really want to know the answer to that question. Anyway your finally awake, eh brat?" he asked rhetorically. His pissed expression softened into his usual blank, uncaring smirk, letting Eren know that Levi wasn't angry with him specifically, more just pissed off at the world in general.

"Man, I told Hanji not to drug you in your sleep, but they just went on muttering something about seeing how fast the drug left your system and proceeded to do it anyway. After that, you were dead to the world. Apparently, your body doesn't deal with drugs as well as it deals with broken bones and the like, because Hanji gave you drugs to last a normal human 32 hours, and that was exactly how long you slept. Either that or the drug wore off a long time ago and you were really asleep. Fucking lazy brat."

Levi walked from the door jam, where he still stood, to the corner of the room where a straight-backed chair and wooden desk sat. Other than Eren's bed, the desk and chair were the only pieces of furniture in the room.

"Um... Levi?" Eren asked tentatively

"What Brat?" Levi responded curtly, from his position sitting backward on the chair.

"Where are we?"

This made Levi sigh and lower his forehead to the chair back, in a position of defeat.

"We've been... well... relocated."

"To where?" Eren asked, still wondering what place would have a picket fence.

"To a shitty _cottage_ in the middle of fucking no where, as part of protecting the world from Eren... or was it protecting Eren from the rest of the world... Never mind, it doesn't matter. Anyway, as part of said protection, we find ourselves with no weapons, no people around for 100s of miles in any direction, and virtually nothing at all to do unless you particularly like staring at trees. Oh, by the way, Hanji and Erwin just left a few minuets ago. They said that they _might_ pay occasional visits, and not to go anywhere. As if there is anywhere to go. You know Eren, why don't you turn into a titan and kill a few trees, or maybe a few innocent hikers if you can find any. It might be entertaining to watch. Actually just to anything you want, I don't particularly care."

Levi said all this with his usual expression that said "I'm bored as hell" as well as in a monotone voice, but his words communicated the emotion that his expression and tone didn't.

And with that, Levi stood up saying "Well, I've got some paperwork shit to do, so see you around, as you have nowhere else to go..." and leaving Eren with permission to do whatever he wanted. Eren's surprised expression faded quickly into a smile as he contemplated what to do with his newfound freedom.

. . . . . . . . . .

Levi watched Eren scale the nearby trees, from his vantage point on the top of the sloped roof of his and Eren's new residence. In the three weeks at their forest home, Levi had taken to sitting silently on the roof and watching Eren. More than ever he had found himself growing more and more aware of the boy's constant presence in his life. Even though he hated titans with a firey passion, this Eren was one titan that he didn't mind. In fact, he was a titan that Levi didn't want to leave his life. He had always acted angry, pissed off, or just inexpressive toward the brat, but sometimes he had to be honest, even if it was just with himself.

The truth was, that Levi had begun to fall for Eren from the moment that he met him. Even behind bars, chains on his wrists, and in a dirty tan t-shirt, Levi had found Eren beautiful. his determination, they way that he had yelled with such life in his eyes when he said that he wanted to join the corps, had just made him so much more appealing. Over time, Levi had seen that he loved everything about the boy; his eyes, his body, the way he spoke, moved, smiled... it was all perfect. Eren radiated light like a burning torch, and nothing seemed to be able to extinguish him. Everyone around him was drawn to that light, and despite his best efforts, so was Levi.

Levi sighed sadly at the thought of Eren. He wasn't even quite sure what he felt for the brat, but he knew that Eren would never be able to return the emotion. They were, and always would be, a soldier and a superior officer, not to mention the fact that Eren probably thought of Levi as an old man. Just watching him from afar was okay though, although this situation was getting to him. He didn't mind Eren's presence at all, he enjoyed it, but being all alone with Eren, reminded every day, every moment, of what he could not have, was so upsetting it was almost painful. It was alright though. Better than not being able to see Eren at all.

Levi glanced back up, bringing his eyes back to Eren... or at least where Eren had been a few moments before. Levi's eyes searched the surrounding area, looking as far into the trees as he could see, as he walked around the perimeter of the roof he leaped to the ground, and hollered into the house, wondering if Eren had gone inside while he wasn't looking, but there was no response. Levi sighed. The brat was probably out exploring, and it wasn't even lunchtime, so it was alright if Eren was out exploring. Levi would make lunch early, then wait for Eren to come back, provided he didn't get lost.

But Eren didn't come back for lunch. It was around four in the evening that Levi couldn't handle his nerves and went outside to look for the other. Concerned, Levi ran to the tree line where he had last seen Eren. He stopped for a moment to holler Eren's name into the forest, then ran in. The ground was very uneven and cluttered with fallen branches and leaves, and the shrubs and branches that grew close to the ground grabbed at his clothing and limbs, seeming determined to slow his progress.

The forest was dark and gloomy, as the sun's rays lost the fight to penetrate the thick branches above. Levi searched the surrounding area for at least an hour when he began to panic. He knew that it would be getting dark quite soon, even though it was still summer, and the sun would probably not set completely till 8:30. Sighing, he returned to the cottage and went back to where he had started, the last place he had seen Eren. He hadn't gone very deep into the forest, as the thick trees would make it very hard to search, but he had no other choice now. He ran in.

After running for some time, Levi's desperation began to grow, getting stronger and he ran further and further. After a few minutes, he forced himself to calm down. A clouded mind wasn't going to help his situation. Levi stopped walking, closed his eyes, and took a few calming breaths. Feeling much better, Levi opened his eyes and looked around himself. Trees, trees, trees, and more trees.

No house.

Shit.

In his desperation, he had managed to get himself lost. A thick forest was also a great way to loose your sense of direction. Levi couldn't even tell which way he had come from. He considered himself to be a proficient tracker, but even thought there should have been a trail of broken branches and stepped on twigs, there was nothing. If he had his 3D maneuver gear, he would have taken to the trees, and sped through the forest at many times the speed he was going before... but he didn't, of course. He knew from experience that he shouldn't try to find his way out by exploring, that just got someone more lost, and so he stopped trying to find a way out. He was feeling extremely useless, as he couldn't find Eren, and he had even gotten lost himself.

Levi sighed, and walked to a tree, a few feet away, and tried to climb it. The branches were fairly close together, so Levi assumed that it would be a fairly easy climb, but he was proved wrong when the branches turned out to be too small and too tightly packed to climb, and the rough, uneven trunk and small, sharp needles, cut at his hands, arms and face, leaving them raw. After climbing back down the tree, he took a deep breath and called out once more for Eren. He heard nothing but the echoes of his voice fading into the surrounding forest.

He sighed is defeat, letting himself slide into a sitting position on the forest floor, his back against a tree. He stayed like that for a few moments, overcome by emotions that he didn't recognize. In his lifetime he had witnessed the deaths of many comrades and friends, and had learned to seal his emotions behind steel doors, locked up tight so they would never reach him. He had shut everyone out for so long, but now there were people creeping in.

Erwin had been Levi's first real friend in a long time, and he even found himself caring for Hanji, as if they were a younger sibling. Now, there was another person seeming very determined to break down Levi's walls: Eren Yeager. The boy was a dangerous person to get attached to as he was so likely to die, but Levi couldn't help it. He couldn't quite describe exactly what he felt for the boy, and he certainly didn't know what the boy felt for him, but he cared for Eren deeply and didn't want to loose him.

Levi brought a hand off the ground and up to his face as he released a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. As he touched his face he startled when he felt something wet.

 _Am I seriously crying?_ Levi thought as he brought his hand away from his face to a distance where he could see it clearly.

No. Not tears... There was something red on his hand. Blood. He knew that his arms and hands were bleeding slightly from his attempted tree climb, but not this much blood, and his face didn't hurt anywhere so... it wasn't his blood. After taking a moment to think about how gross it was that someone else's blood was on him, he stopped to think. If it wasn't his blood whose was it?

Levi's eyes shot down to the ground where his hand had been resting and met a puddle of blood, mostly soaked into the ground, but still there, the thick substance refusing to soak in quickly. His eyes followed the crimson liquid into a bunch of low resting shrubs and ferns. Nearly concealed by all of the shrubbery, there was a hand. A hand that was probably attached to an arm, which was possibly attached to a body, which was hopefully alive. Levi ran to the patch of ferns, and grabbed the hand.

 _Thank god_ Levi thought. The hand was still warm and had a pulse, which meant the person was still alive. He cleared away the ferns and other green substance, and pulled the still form from their clutches. He set the person down, inspecting them for wounds. The person, a boy, was missing an arm, and one of his legs was bent at an odd angle that was diffidently unnatural, and suggested that it was broken.

Taking a deep breath, Levi gathered the courage to look at the person's face. If it was Eren, he would be okay. Eren could survive the missing arm, in fact, he would just grow a new one. Eren would be here, by Levi's side, not lost any more. If it wasn't Eren, the stranger would probably die of blood loss, and Levi would probably die from the damage inflicted to his heart by getting his hopes up. He took a deep breath and rolled the boy over so he could see his face.

As he looked at the boy's face he broke.

All of the emotions that Levi had built up over the past couple of months poured over the steel wall that he had built up, and came crashing out of him. They came out with the power of a tsunami, threatening to sweep Levi away in their violent torrent of despair, sadness, longing, passion, joy and every emotion in between. Levi could feel the years he had spent hardening himself and building up his melancholy mask to hide himself all washing away, dissolving as if they had never been there in the first place.

He dropped his head to the boy's chest and let out a sob, wrapping his arms around the boy.

Around Eren.

"Levi..." came a soft voice.

"Eren... It's okay Eren. It will be alright."

. . . . . . . . . .

The last thing Eren remembered was swinging tree to tree, the wind rushing through his hair, and feeling quite like a monkey. He remembered his hand getting caught in something vine-like, a wrenching pain, falling, falling, then blissful darkness.

And now, he was in a very unexpected position. Or... maybe he was still unconscious. Levi clinging to him and crying onto his chest was something that only happened in his dreams. Nevertheless, he managed to speak Levi's name softly. At the sound of Eren's voice, Levi Looked up just long enough to see Eren's open eyes, then started sobbing even harder.

"Eren... It's okay Eren. It will be alright."

Eren was almost tempted to say _"I'm perfectly fine, it's you who is crying all over me,"_ but then decided he should go with something softer for the sake of his captain. After all it wasn't every day that Levi poured his feelings out like this, or even showed feelings at all.

"You're right Levi. I'm okay." Eren said quietly, nearly whispering.

And even though Eren was the one that had a missing arm and a broken leg, he found himself being the one doing the comforting to his sobbing superior. Levi had never showed feelings like this in front of him, and Eren wanted to show Levi that he didn't think it made him weak or childish, only more human. More real.

He slowly wrapped his one arm around Levi's shoulders and Levi placed his hands on Eren's chest, his hands clenching into fists over the fabric of Eren's shirt. Slowly, Levi's sobs slowed, but his hands still clung to Eren's shirt. They stayed like this for a while and just let time pass, neither speaking. There was silence, but it was not tense or awkward, just quiet.

After some time, (and by some time, I mean enough time for Eren's missing arm to grow back) Levi cleared his throat and started to sit upright. Eren took his arms back from where they had been, hugging Levi. He couldn't help but notice that without his permission, his hands drifted down to hold Levi's waist, instead of holding him around the shoulders like his had originally intended.

"Um... I guess we should head back. I don't know if I can find the way back, but it will be harder once the sun sets and it is completely dark," Levi said softly, looking at the ground with a soft blush on his cheeks, hidden by the darkness of the forest. Eren nodded, and tried to sit up himself, but was stopped by a sharp pain in his head. His arm had grown back and his leg had healed, but he had a raging headache. He let out a groan and dropped his head to rest between his knees. Eren felt a gentle hand on his back and looked up at Levi, who was standing next to him, only to yelp in surprise as Levi slid an arm under his knees, while the other tightened around Eren's shoulders and Levi lifted him into the air, holding him bridal style.

"It's alright." Levi said, "I'll carry you." and for a moment, Eren was stunned by how sweet and caring his superior was being. Noticing Eren's questioning eyes on him, Levi gave Eren a glare. "Only this time, though. Next time you can suck it up and find your way back on your own two feet."

Eren gave a look of surprise, then smiled at the words and expression that were so contradictory to Levi's previous actions. He regretted the sudden motion a moment later, as his head began to protest furiously, and his expression changed to a grimace of pain. Levi immediately looked as if he regretted glaring at Eren, and used the hand that looped around Eren's torso to pull him closer, in a comforting manner. Eren gave a thankful grin through his pain and snuggled closer to Levi's chest. Admiring the look of the sunset, with the sun faintly glowing close to the horizon, outlining the tree trunks, and changing the world's color to a soft gold. "Well, I set off towards the west, so our house is to the east, away from the sun," Levi said as started walking.

Levi was short, but every inch of the small body was lithe and muscular, and Eren could feel the muscles that he had stared at so often moving smoothly against his side. He let out a content sigh and closed his eyes.

He didn't even realize when he fell asleep.

. . . . . . . . . .

Levi was almost glad when Eren fell asleep. It had taken a lot of work to keep from blushing as bright as a cherry. It would have been very embarrassing, or at least it would have made him more embarrassed than he already was. Levi didn't think that he had cried at all, much less like that, in a solid twelve years, maybe more. It was almost scary how this boy broke down his walls and saw through his soul so easily. It was like Eren knew every nook and cranny of his personality, and always knew what he was going to do, and was never surprised. it was sort of a frightening feeling, but at the same time, Levi liked it. It made him feel understood, even safe in a way. Not safe as if he needed, or even wanted, to be protected; safe like he was needed by someone, and that someone had seen into his heart, but wouldn't betray him. Levi smiled softly and placed a kiss on the top of Eren's head, then thought about what he had just done, and cringed at how cliche it was to kiss a sleeping person on the head.

"But Levi," the smart ass voice in his head said, "if it's so cliché, why are you blushing so hard? You have done way worse things than that to a man, so why? Huh? No comment?"

"Oh, shut up already," Levi muttered aloud. Dammed internal voices.

Luckily, Levi had picked the right direction to walk in, because after walking for about an hour, he saw an especially bright patch of sunlight, which turned out to be the clearing that their house was in. As soon as Levi saw the house, he gave a huge sigh of relief and leaned up against a tree to take a moment to give silent thanks to any and all gods who might have been watching over him that day. His forced himself to resolve to go to church at least once... well maybe... if he was free.

Returning his weight to his feet, and shifting Eren in his arms, Levi started back to the shitty place that they had started to call home. Never had a cottage looked so good to Levi in his whole life... well, maybe there was a period in his past when anything besides a cardboard box had looked great, but this was the first time since he had joined the corps that he had been so glad to be returning to a cottage in the middle of nowhere.

A few seconds after he reached the door, Levi faced a problem. Getting the door open.

Levi didn't want to set the sleeping boy down, so he resolved his problem by raising his leg to about chest level, and kicking the door open; he could repair any damage done later. That problem solved, Levi carried Eren through the living room and into his room. Eren's room was simple, except for his bed, which was large and looked extremely soft, contrary to the simple beds that most of the corps, including Levi himself, used. It was Eren's gift from Hanji, although Levi couldn't think of a reason... Never mind. He knew exactly what had been going through their perverted head.

Levi quickly expelled thoughts such as those from his mind, and carried Eren to the bed. He set him on the very edge of the bed while he pulled back the blankets, then slid him under them gently. He sighed with a mixture of sadness and happiness, and brushed Eren's hair back from his face, before turning to leave the room. He was almost at the door, when he heard his name coming from the boy, spoken breathlessly, almost as if he were in pain, but not quite. He turned around and stepped back to the side of the bed, then froze.

Did Eren just...  
Moan?

 **Hmmm I wonder what Eren could be dreaming of? ;3**

 **There you have it people, the end of another chapter. I will try to be quicker with my updates but no promises.**

 **Just saying, Levi is one lucky dog. He was lost in the forest, then stopped for a breather exactly where Eren was, then managed to use to position of the sun to find his way back, when he couldn't do that before... Karma is just doing Levi a favor to help move my plot along ;)**

 **Just a quick warning, next chapter the rating will probably go up to M thanks to Eren's vivid imagination, so if you don't want to read that sorta thing, don't read it...**

 **Exciting news, I'm starting a new fic! This one if for D-Grey Man, and will have an Allen x Kanda pairing. I am having trouble with the details, so there is a poll on my profile, so check it out if you want to influence my next story with one click.**

 **That's all :) see ya next time**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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